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lEWS 



Views of Heaven. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

No. 1 1 22 Chestnut Street. 



New York: Nos. 8 and io Bible House, Astok Place. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 
THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



The Library 
OF Conor ESS 



WASHINGTON 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 



TTOU ask, dear friend, that I should write 
^ out for you my views of Heaven, or the 
future state. You know I have been for some 
years dwelling on the border land, and am 
waiting and watching for the words, " The 
Master has come and calleth for. thee." 
Therefore, it is natural that my thoughts 
should dwell upon that inheritance which God 
has promised to those who love him, and that 
I should seek all the knowledge I can obtain 
respecting 

"Jerusalem, my happy home." 



4 VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 

I have collated, for my own use, the views 
of different authors, dead and living, and noted 
every sentence in sermons or papers that ex- 
pressed views I thought were at least not 
opposed to any we might deduce from the 
study of God's Word ; and if it will be of any 
comfort for you to read, you shall have my 
views. But you must understand they are 
mostly expressed in the words of others. 

First, let me say, the glorification of be- 
lievers is invested with profound mysteries 
which the testimony of God does not unveil, 
and unto which our sin-weakened minds could 
not attain. We should not therefore give 
unrestrained license to our fancies, but keep 
to the landmarks of revealed truth. If we 
believe in Christ, we have divine assurance 
that God has given us power to become His 
sons ; and while the glory pertaining to this 
sonship and adoption is postponed and reserved 



VIFWS OF HEAVEN, 5 

for another world ; while the details of our 
condition and blessedness are yet among those 
'' secret things which belong unto the Lord our 
God ;" yet we have such a testimony given us 
that we may cheerfully walk by faith and live 
by hope, and be content with the assurance, 
"We shall be hke him." Why God did not 
give us descriptions of heavenly life I do not 
trouble myself to wonder. He had His rea- 
sons, and that is enough for me. The Bible 
specifies very little about the minor arrange- 
ments of eternity in any way. The mystery 
of the Bible lies not so much in what it says, 
as in what it does not say. Solomon says: "It 
is the glory of God to conceal a thing." The 
Psalmist says : "Thy footsteps are not known." 
Christ said : " I have yet many things to say 
unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Per- 
haps we have been told all that we can com- 
prehend in this our sinful state. Chalmers says : 



6 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

"It were well for us all could we carefully 
draw the line between the secret things that 
belong unto the Lord our God and those that 
are revealed to us and our children." Whately 
says : " Precisely because we know so little of 
these subjects, it is the more important we 
should endeavour so to dwell on them as to 
make the most of what knowledge we have." 
While not " wise above what is written," we 
should attempt most studiously to be wise up 
to what is written. I do not wish to fancy or 
conjecture anything the Bible contradicts, nor 
believe as indisputable truth anything the Bible 
does not give me. Some, from the constitu- 
tion of their minds, may find it easy to abstain 
from every path of excursive meditation ; not 
so with others, who are irresistibly borne for- 
ward to the vast field of universal contempla- 
tion. Whatever may be our first experience 
after leaving the body, it does not seem to me 



VIUWS OF HEAVEN. 7 

probable it is to be a revolutionary one. It 
seems more in analogy with God's dealings 
that a quiet process should open our eyes, in 
the light that would blind if it came upon us 
as a flash. It may be the faces of dear fami- 
liar friends will be the first to greet us, that 
they may lead us, as we are able, within the 
veil, till we are used to the wonder and the 
glory, and then lead on to Him whom we could 
not bear to see at first. It may be the reverse. 
Christ may meet us and lead us to our friends. 
But whatever Heaven is, we are always to 
bear in mind that it is being with Jesus — that 
should be the first and greatest attraction to us. 
''Absent from the body," "present with the 
Lord." Our change may not be something 
so entirely new as we seem to think necessary : 
it is probably only the purifying and perfecting 
of what we are now. We were made " in the 
image of God" — sin changed and defiled it. 



8 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

Take away sin and its effects, and we will again 
be in His image. I do not hold to an indefinite 
Heaven, where the glory of God is to crowd 
out all individuality and all human joy, though 
God himself will be the first, naturally and of 
necessity. What can Heaven be to us but a 
song of love, that is the same to us '' yester- 
day, and to-day, and forever !" — the love that, 
in the mystery of an eternity which we mav 
never fully understand, could choose death, 
and rejoice in the choosing ; and what is more, 
could love life — such a life — for us three and 
thirty years. 

It seems to me we shall learn to see in God 
the centre of all possibilities of joy. The 
great trouble with most now, is a desire to 
materialize everything, and bring them to our 
level. What we need is to spiritualize our- 
selves — not to materialize Heaven. Not so 
much what the mansion is, but how to gain 



VfFWS OF HEAVEN. 9 

entrance there, should be the subject of our 
thoughts. Not to vex ourselves as to what 
the spiritual body is to be, but a fit spirit to 
inhabit it. Still I believe Heaven is a place, 
not merely a state. It has locality and is mate- 
rial. It is our Father's mansions, prepared for 
us by the Saviour. The ^^ City of God ;" the 
'^ New Jerusalem ;" the " Inheritance of the 
Saints." A pure river of the " water of life" 
will be there; and the "tree of life," which 
bears twelve fruits monthly : and we shall 
serve God, and see His face, and reign for- 
ever and ever. And "the nations of them 
which are saved " shall be in it. The fruits 
of sin shall have passed away. We shall 
praise there on " harps of gold," and sing and 
worship there. Heaven is substance — this 
earth the shadow; that, the reality — this, the 
dream. Jesus aimed to make duty paramount 
to knowledge; the heart superior to the intel- 



I O VIE WS OF HE A VEN, 

lect ; and His glory is manifested in '^ conceal- 
ing" everything, save that which tends to 
disclose our danger and deliverance. Let the 
sublime premise of our logic be this: "God is 
love," and our conclusion this : " Though he 
slay me, yet w^ill I trust in him." Let the 
silence o our Saviour w^ith respect to Heaven, 
as on other subjects, admonish us that our chief 
work is preparation for the life that lies just 
beyond this, and whose boundary is not far 
from each one. '^ I go to prepare a place for 
you." " Where I am, ye shall be." 

Many things may be known from the Bible 
about Heaven, after close study, which are not 
perceived at first sight or thought. Those whose 
eyes are ardently, piously, and lovingly directed 
to their future home, will get farthest in their 
knowledge of it. The idea is a glorious one — 
that all systems revolve round one common 
centre, which may be termed the throne of 



VTJSWS OF HEAVEN. II 

God ! Scripture says the " Lord has prepared 
his throne in the heavens." ''A glorious 
high throne from the beginning, is the place of 
my sanctuary." 

The nature of our union with Christ as be- 
lievers forbids the idea some entertain that the 
soul sinks into unconscious sleep — " Because 
I live, ye shall live also." This is not merely 
a moral union, but a living one. ^' He that 
believeth, hath eternal life :" it begins here, 
and as it is eternal, must live on through death 
and the grave. This union begins in spiritual 
regeneration, and can never end or be suspend- 
ed. " Glittering generalities" are cold — I need 
something actual, something real and pleasant 
about Heaven. I do not believe God would 
create beautiful, pure, unselfish loves, just for 
our threescore years. The object of this world 
is to fit us for another, and I do not think that 
on passing out of it, we lose our individuality, 



1 2 VIEWS OF HE A VEN, 

and throw off forever its gifts, its lessons, and 
its memories. We shall be ourselves in Hea- 
ven, and recognize those we love here. " Many 
shall come ftom the east and west, and shall sit 
down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob:" 
and will not we know we are with those very 
saints and recall their earthly memories ? Affec- 
tions are not left behind us at death — love's 
memories are not lost. Death does not destroy 
nor mutilate the mortal — the creature will enter 
Heaven ; no new creation, no stranger spirit. 
Man with a human body, man with a human 
heart ; renewed, sanctified, yet ^' clothed upon 
with immortaHty." Christ said to Mary, 
" Thy brother shall rise again ;" still to be 
her brother, or where were the consolation ? 
Our ftiends will love us there ; wait ft)r us ; 
joy to see us. Mary did not love Jesus less 
after Lazarus was restored to her. 

Look at the expressions: ''risen together;" 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 1 3 

^'sitting together in heavenly places ;" "sitting 
together at the right hand of God." If these 
mean anything, they mean recognitions, friend- 
ships, enjoyments. Did not the three disciples 
know and see Moses and Elias on the mount r 
Did they not talk with each other and with 
Christ? Did not John, in Revelations, talk 
with the angel, who " showed him these 
things ?" Neither reason, nor the Bible, nor 
common sense forbids our thinking that, if we 
go out into this other life forgetting, we become 
another than ourselves. Of course we cannot 
demonstrate it. Our sainted friends, though 
changed and out of sight, do not forget, nor 
cease to love, and I love to think are often 
present with us : "I believe in the commu- 
nion of saints." But though the belief that 
those in Heaven know what occurs on earth 
must rest on conjecture and analogy, I think 
they often are permitted to; and that our 



14 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

thoughts there shall continue to be our own ; 
not known to all, or individuality would be 
destroyed, and there would be no use in inter- 
course, which there is no doubt we shall have 
in Heaven. God will not place us in an idle 
world. Our best energies will be called forth. 
God works by the use of means, and may He 
not probably send those to comfort, teach and 
help us, who so understandingly can reach the 
peculiarities of our nature, and thus be '^ min- 
istering spirits" to minister to those who shall 
be heirs with them of the "great salvation?" 
I hold no spiritualistic view that we can have 
converse here with our friends " beyond the 
river ;" for if we could speak to them, or they 
to us, there could be no death ; for there would 
be no separation. 

What means the text: "There is joy in the 
presence of the angels of God over one sinner 
that repenteth," if the departed are not permit- 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 1 5 

ted to keep us in sight? An archangel could not 
understand, nor reach our necessities, nor bear 
with nor love us, as those who have left us 
and borne our sinful nature. God's power of 
inventing happiness is not to be blocked up by 
any obstacles we may suggest. Perhaps our 
sainted and redeemed ones can bear the sight 
of our trials, and sufferings, and wanderings, 
for the peace and the '^ exceeding weight of 
glory" they know await us. This subject does 
perplex me. I believe we shall be happy at 
once on leaving the body. Freed from sin, 
and ''with Jesus," how could it be otherwise? 
But much happier when, having stood before 
the "judgment seat of Christ," we shall "be 
recompensed at the resurrection of the just;" 
not on account of works, but according to 
works, and united to an mcorruptible and 
glorious body. Then we shall be "heirs of 
God," "joint heirs with Christ ;" having suf- 



1 6 VIEWS OF UFA VEX. 

fered with Him, we shall be glorified together. 
'^ Holy Father, keep through thine own name, 
those whom thou hast given me, that they may 
be one, as we are." 

It is to be presumed that our tastes and 
capacities will be enlarged and ennobled after 
the resurrection. I accept wholly and without 
wavering God's statement about the resurrec- 
tion. I neither know nor care how it is to be 
effected. Look at a splendid butterfly, emerg- 
ing from its dark and gloomy bed. Something 
of this very body will be preserved for the 
completion of another '' glorious body ;" yet 
it may be as unlike to our former one as the 
beauteous, gorgeous butterfly is unlike to its 
previous crawling state. God can never be at 
a loss for a way. Whately says : " It is not a 
little remarkable that the prevailing opinion 
should be, that the very same particles of 
bodily substance which are laid in the grave. 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 1 7 

or otherwise disposed of, are to be reassembled 
and reunited at the resurrection, so as to form, 
as is supposed, the same body in which the 
soul resided before death, and that the Scripture 
teaches us to believe this. Paul's words, 
however, express almost as strongly as words 
can, the direct contrary. His illustration is 
that of seed sown. ^ That which thou sowest 
is not quickened except it die.' Paul reminds 
us that a grain of corn when sown dies — is 
dissolved ; its structure destroyed, never to be 
restored, which is the very illustration used by 
our Lord, also, in speaking of the same subject : 
' Verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat 
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but 
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' It is not 
a plant that is sown, but a seed; we raise from 
it not the same thing sown, but a plant which is 
very different. 'Thou sowest not that body that 
shall be . . . but God giveth it a body, as it hath 



1 8 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

pleased him, and to every seed his own body.' 
It is admitted by Paul that ' we shall all be 
changed' — different from what we are; but 
many cling to the idea that the same particles 
of matter which belong to our bodies now 
must be brought together and reunited. This 
notion is not authorized by Scripture, and is 
liable to many objections, hard to be answered, 
and likely to shake men's faith in the whole 
doctrine. It is said and believed that all the 
particles of matter which compose our bodies 
are changed several times during our life; why 
is it then to be supposed that the identical par- 
ticles of matter which belonged to any body 
at his death must be brought together at his 
resurrection, in order to make the same body ? 
The same person who was an infant, and is a 
man, is not called the same person from any 
resemblance between an infant and a man, but 
from belonging to the same soul, conveying 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 1 9 

feelings and perceptions to the same mind, and 
obeying the directions of the same will. So 
that if, at the resurrection, we are clothed with 
bodies which we, in this way, perceive to be- 
long to us, and to be ours, it signifies nothing 
of what particles of bodily substance they 
are composed. Throughout Scripture, the 
phrase, ' resurrection of the body,' or ' resur- 
rection of the flesh,' nowhere occurs. It 
speaks of man's resurrection 'from the dead;' 
of his 'vile body' being 'changed;' of his 
being ' clothed upon,' &c. They who sleep 
in Jesus will be raised up with bodies which 
they will feel to be their own, though far dif- 
ferent from the 'earthly tabernacles' of flesh 
and blood, and 'like unto the glorious body of 
Christ.'" 

I believe our raised bodies will be real 
and tangible. Jesus said to Thomas, " reach 
hither thy finger," &c. And He ate with His 



20 VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 

disciples. " There are celestial bodies." We 
shall be raised not only spirits, but spiritual 
bodies. Moses and Elias had bodies when 
they appeared in the mount. Something like 
human form is probably retained. God chose 
it for His highest work, as given to Adam and 
Eve, when in unmarred beauty He made them 
after His own image ; and we shall probably 
return to something like the pure ideal when 
raised in " glory, power, and incorruption ;" 
for the human form was dignified in its as- 
sumption by our Saviour. His death and 
resurrection is a prototype of ours, and we 
shall be like Him. '' As we have borne the 
image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly." Whatever is essen- 
tially earthy and temporary in the arrangements 
of this world will be wiped away there. We 
shall leave all the ills of flesh which sin caused, 
— sickness, troubles, anxieties, 'cares, tempta- 



VIE WS OF HE A YEN. 2 1 

tions, and tears — all passed away. No more 
looking for separation and death, but clothed 
with powers which " eye hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 
of man." The word material applied to Hea- 
ven, implies no degradation, except so far as it 
is associated with sin. Our memories will no 
doubt exist, but so many greater and happier 
memories will fill up our thoughts, that these 
now present things will seem, perhaps, very 
small to us. Yet, remembering our past life, 
all the way the Lord our God has brought us, 
may help us to appreciate the next. Our 
light afflictions will seem to have been " but 
for a moment." Jesus will say, "remember, 
ye visited me." Abraham, in the parable, 
said, " Son, remember ;" and I cannot think 
anything that has in it the elements of perma- 
nancy can be lost, but sin. No testimony of 
another world was given by Lazarus, or Jairus's 



22 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

child, or the widow's only son. Perhaps they 
were suffered to forget their glimpse of spiritual 
life, as our vivid dreams pass away, though so 
real at the time. It might have unfitted them 
for the further duties of this life. 

I have no doubt we remember the past in 
Heaven, " to swell the sense of being blest." 
What we may suppose must be in memory an 
interference with our happiness, I leave to 
God. In some way the mind must be filled ; 
for has He not promised to wipe away all tears, 
and that there shall be no more sorrow ? But 
the only thought, it seems to me, in which 
there can be any rest is, that Jesus, who know- 
eth all things from the beginning, is happy in 
Himself, and loves us even as the Father loves 
Him ; and He can make like happiness possible 
for us, and will do so. Our conclusion in the 
New Jerusalem will be as it ought to be here: 
" He hath done all things well," for he is holv. 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 23 

just and good. I do not hold to an indefinite 
heaven, where the "glory of God" is to crowd 
out all individuality, and all human joy, though 
God himself will be first, naturally and of 
necessity. Human dearness will wax, not 
wane, in Heaven ; human friends will be loved 
for the love of Him ; and would that it were 
always so now, instead of loving the creature 
more than the Creator. I often fancy that, 
somewhere and sometime, a revelation will 
come upon us, as a flash, of what sin really 
is, lighting up the lurid background of our past 
in such tints that the consciousness of what 
Jesus has done for us will be. for a time as 
much as heart can bear. After that, the 
mystery will be, not how to love Him most, 
but that we ever could have loved any thing, 
or creature, as much. Christ, with His own 
body, rose, ate, walked, talked ; and is all our 
memory of this life to be swept away ? He, 



24 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

arisen, waits to meet His disciples. Have we 
been troubled with fears that in the glorified 
crowds of Heaven we may miss a face dearer 
than all the world to us ? He made himself 
known to His friends, to Mary, to the two at 
Emmaus, and the bewildered group, praying and 
perplexed, in their closed room. Do we weary 
ourselves with speculations whether human 
love can outlive the shock of death r Mary 
knew how He loved her when, turning, she 
heard Him call, '^ Mary !" They knew whose 
'^hearts burned within them by the way," 
when He talked with them, and tarried with 
them, the night being far spent. ''He that 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
for us all, how shall he not with him also 
freely give us all things," even as He gives 
unto us eternal life ? I think we may be per- 
mitted to weave our future life in with this, 
till it grows naturally and pleasantly into our 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN'. 25 

frequent thoughts. It is sweet to me to think 
we can never have an unloved moment in 
Heaven. Our Saviour knows us, our love, 
trials and failings. He knew Peter, from first 
to last. If we are to be like Him, we must 
have that clear vision which will enable us to 
know the hearts of those left behind, probably, 
and to appreciate their efforts and trials. Para- 
bles were used to explain the truth more 
clearly than would be done by precept ; but 
leaving out the imagery, there is a plain state- 
ment of recognition and memory in that of 
Lazarus and the rich man. As Christ's love 
is more to us now than any human love can 
be, so will our friend's love be as much more 
to us there than here ; for we learn from our 
great Teacher how to love, and be able to 
comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and 
height, ^'and to know the love of Christ," 
&c., and perhaps love like Him. God has 



26 VIFWS OF HEAVEN. 

made the ties of love one of the strongest 
parts of our nature here ; is it likely He meant 
them to cease at the grave, and the other life 
be filled with new ties ? What kind of place 
would it be where we would all know Christ 
and none knew each other ? Our hearts, like 
the inn at Bethlehem, are often too full for our 
Saviour to have room there, but in Heaven, 
our love to friends must be in subjection to our 
higher love. There will be no jealousies or 
emulations in Heaven, to be aroused by parti- 
alities. Jesus loved John and Lazarus, Mary 
and Martha, with peculiar deep, clear affection, 
and we may love most those specially suited to 
us, both here and in Heaven. There should 
be no room in all our life for impatience, for 
God is in it all. The perfect work of patience 
is the waiting and the doing. Our low^ spirits 
at times, and our moods, may be sent us as 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 27 

a means of discipline — a shadow which may 
pass off when its work is done. 

" God hath His mysteries of grace j 
Ways that we cannot tell 5 
And hides them deep, like the secret sleep, 
Of Him He loved so well." 

It seems to me, even in Heaven, children 
must be purer than we who have sinned so long 
and so often. They cannot be what the saint 
is, who has fought and overcome ; yet they 
share the same joys. I believe there will be 
use found in Heaven for the learning and 
talents of earth. If "every good and perfect 
gift is from above ;" if He has given them to 
us, and we have not ill-used His gifts, nor 
buried them in a napkin, I believe we will 
retain them, and have them satisfied more com- 
pletely than here. But I am willing to trust 
all these things to God, our loving Father. 



28 VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 

I may find them different from what I sup- 
pose — I know I shall find them infinitely more 
satisfying. I believe nothing God's Word 
denies ; I cannot overrate the beauty of His 
promises, therefore it does me no harm to 
take the comfort of some things I may only 
rancy. Reason does not forbid, but rather 
encourages, us to believe (and I think Scrip- 
ture intimates it) that angels are constantly 
around us on earth ; that the spirit is capable 
of hearing their mysterious whispers through 
the mortal veil, and they stand " ministering 
spirits," in constant sympathy and communion 
with our spirits. If evil spirits are permitted 
to excite and allure our thoughts to evil, by 
making use of our indwelling depravity, why 
cannot good angels incite the Christian's mind 
to useful and happy thoughts, by making use 
of God-given indwelling grace ? They in- 
terest themselves in our salvation, as evil 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 29 

spirits do in our ruin. We pray, deliver us 
from evil (the evil one) ; is it not often 
answered through the ministry of angels ? 
God sent an angel to Peter in prison, to Elijah 
in the juniper shade. No wonder they are 
often hovering around in the dying visions of 
the saints. Eager to receive the struggling 
spirit, they press through the veil, or lift it 
gently up, to the dying Christian, and look 
upon him with smiles of welcome. It is the 
^' chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof," 
at the bed of death. All the comforts which 
are in Scripture, in various places and ways, 
given to bereaved saints on earth, in reference 
to their pious dead, proclaim the communion 
and sympathy in which they still stand to them. 
The apostle exhorts the mourners of Thessa- 
lonica to " sorrow not even as others which 
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also which 



30 VIE WS OF HE A VEN. 

sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Now 
if we will not know those whom we thus meet 
again, what advantage will we gain by this 
unrecognizing companionship ? If at the tran- 
sit of death all recollections of the past were 
blotted out, we would stand on the eternal 
shore as a new creation, rather than as beings 
that had previous life, and history, and were to 
be judged according to their works. We must 
see the reason of our "right" to enter into 
the glorious temple, and that can only be by a 
review of our probationary state. How can 
we give an account of our stewardship if we 
do not remember the particular connections 
and relations in which we stood upon earth ? 
Those of the saints who lived, loved and 
struggled together, though one departs "beyond 
the river" before the other, the cords of love 
and sympathy which unite them are not 
broken: they are still "one in Christ Jesus." 



VIE WS OF HE A YEN, 3 I 

"The Spirit and the bride say, come." The 
bride is the Church — part on earth, and part in 
Heaven. My thoughts, and feelings, and 
hopes crowd onward still, along the misty 
Jordan, on whose banks I have so long stood, 
I continue to walk up and down, looking 
anxiously across, until the day breaks ; waiting 
and watching for the call — "Even so, come. 
Lord Jesus !" 

*' Oh, to be ready when death shall come ! 
Oh, to be ready to hasten home ! 
No earthward clinging, no lingering gaze ; 
No strife at parting, no sore amaze j 
No chains to sever, that earth hath twined 5 
No spell to loosen, that love would bind. • 
No flitting shadows, to dim the light 
Of the angel pinions, winged for flight j 
No cloud-like phantoms to fling a gloom 
'Twixt Heaven's bright portals and earth's dark tomb. 
But sweetly and gently to pass away. 
From the world's dim twilight to endless day ! 



32 VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 

To list to the music of angel lyres j 
To catch the rapture of seraph fires j 
To lean in trust on the risen One, 
'Till borne away to a fadeless throne. 
Oh, to be ready when death shall come ! 
Oh, to be ready to enter home !" 

These are Bonar's sweet lines ; and I wil! 
add some others that are full of my own 
heart's thoughts and feelings ; and many de- 
scending, as we are, the hill of life, might 
enjoy them, though a sadness (not gloom) per- 
vades them, which almost always accompanies 
the autumn of life, no matter how brightly it 
may be tinted by the brilliant hopes and joys 
of the life to come. You recollect those 
words of Paul, '' I know whom I have be- 
lieved, and am persuaded that he is able to 
keep that which I have committed unto him 
against that day." One says on this text : 
"Paul stands before us in the attitude of calm 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 33 

Christian assurance — I believe on the Son of 
God. He told me at the outset I would have 
the flesh to crucify, and corruption to mortify ; 
I would have a battle to fight, enemies to con- 
quer, a wilderness to traverse, and a race to 
run; and I have found His every word true. 
The warning and the promise ; the danger and 
deliverance ; the toil and tranquillity ; the out- 
ward suffering and inward calm. And now I 
declare with my dying breath, that my estimate 
of Jesus has undergone no change. He is still 
my all in all — the faithful and true. I have 
entrusted my soul to Him, and am persuaded 
it is safe in His keeping. I am not making a 
plunge into eternity in the dark. I have 
weighed the grounds of my conviction ; I 
have looked at the soundness of the Rock, to 
see if it will bear me ; I have tasted that the 
Lord is gracious, and therefore am confident 
of this very thing, — that He which hath begun 



34 VIEWS OF HE A VEX. 

a good work in me will perform it until the 
day of Christ." If we desire to have the 
same confidence in Jesus in a dying hour, we 
must live to Jesus as did this apostle ; give 
Him our confidence and love, and He will 
prove himself faithful to the end. It may not 
be that we shall exhibit the same strong faith, 
or give expression to the same feelings of un- 
shaken reliance on the Saviour, but we will 
have peace and serenity. 

Do we long for the grace of assurance ? Do 
we feel, at times, a doubt of our soul's safety ? 
So did the apostle. He dreaded lest, "after 
having preached to others, he himself should 
be a castaway." Assurance is not a grace 
given to the believer and never weakened. 
His experience is varied, his journey not all 
sunshine. We are to live by faith, not sight. 
We have times of cloud and storm and tem- 
pest ; yes, even when our hearts are glad and 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN, 35 

joyous, so that we can say, " Thou hast 
anointed my head with oil, and my cup run- 
neth over," there are unseen agencies at work 
to depress and sadden the soul. One day we 
are bold and ardent, another sunk in despond- 
ency. To-day we realize the assurance, '^ I 
have blotted out thy transgressions," to-mor- 
row we are weak and feeble. Long years of 
training and discipline are needed ere the Chris- 
tian can take up the language of the apostle : 
but look back on the page of your experience 
as he did, and "be not afraid, only believe." 
See your pilgrimage path studded with Eben- 
ezers, testifying to your Saviour's mercy and 
faithfulness. Think of His manifold gracious 
interpositions in the past, sustaining you in 
trial, supporting you in perplexity, helping you, 
when " vain was the help of man." Take 
these things as the pledges of faithfulness in 
the future, and be this your prayer, " Lord, 



36 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

give me grace to trust Thee at all times \ in 
joy and sorrow, in sickness and health ; and in 
thy good time, enable me truly to say with thy 
servants of old, ^ I know whom I have be- 
lieved,' and ^ I shall be satisfied when I awake 
in thy likeness.'" 

Not here, not here ! not where the sparkling waters 
Fade into mocking sands, as we draw near ; 

Where in the wilderness each footstep falters : 
" I shall be satisfied," but oh ! not here. 

Not here, where every dream of bliss deceives us ; 

Where the worn spirit never gains its goal j 
Where, haunted ever by the thoughts that grieve us, 

Across us floods of bitter memories roll. 

There is a land where every pulse is thrilling 
With rapture earth's sojourners may not knowj 

Where Heaven's repose the weary heart is stilling. 
And peacefully life's time-tossed currents flow. 

Far out of sight, while yet the flesh enfolds us. 
Lies the fair country where our hearts abide 5 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 37 

And of its bliss is nought more wondrous told us 
Than these few words : I shall be satisfied. 

Satisfied ! satisfied ! the spirit's yearning 

For sweet companionship with kindred minds ; 

The silent love that here meets no returning, 
The inspiration which no language finds : — 

Shall they be satisfied ? The soul's vague longings, 
The aching void which nothing earthly fills ? 

Oh ! what desires upon my heart are thronging, 
As I look upward to the heavenly hills ! 

Thither my weak and weary steps are tending, 
Saviour and Lord ! with thy frail child abide ! 

Guide me towards home, where, all my wanderings ending, 
I there shall see Thee, and " be satisfied !" 

R A. R., 

Mount Holly. 

We are each of us 

" Only waiting till the shadows 
Are a little longer grown 5 
Only waiting till the glimmer 

Of the day's last gleam is flown j 



38 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

Till the night of earth is faded 
From the heart once full of day ; 

Till the stars of Heaven are breaking 
Through the twilight soft and gray. 

" Only waiting till the reapers 

Have the last sheaf gathered home, 
For the summer-time is faded 

And the autumn winds have come. 
Quickly, reapers, gather quickly 

The last ripe hours of my heart 5 
For the bloom of life is withered, 

And I hasten to depart. 

" Only waiting till the angels 

Open wide the mystic gate. 
At whose bars I long have lingered, 

Weary, tired, and desolate. 
Even now I hear their footsteps 

And their voices far away 5 
If they call me, I am waiting : 

Only waiting to obey. 

" Only waiting till the shadows 
Are a little longer grown j 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 39 

Only waiting till the glimmer 

Of the day's last gleam is flown : 

Then from out the gathering darkness, 
Holy, deathless stars shall rise, 

By whose light my soul shall gladly 
Tread its pathway to the skies " 

And as we are '^watchers at the gate," we 
can say, with Dr. Guthrie, 

"I'm kneeling at the threshold. 

Weary, faint and sore 5 
Waiting for the dawning, for the opening of the door j 

Waiting till the Master 

Shall bid me rise and come 
To the glory of His presence, to the gladness of His home. 

" A weary path I've travelled, 

'Mid darkness, storm and strife. 
Bearing many a burden, struggling for my life ; 

But now the dawn is breaking. 

My toil will soon be o'er, 
I'm kneeling at the threshold, my hand is on the door. 



40 VIEWS OF HE A VEX. 

" Methinks I hear the voices 

Of the blessed, as they stand 
Singing in the sunshine of the far-oif sinless land 5 

Oh ! would that I were with them 

Amid their shining throng, 
Mingling in their worship, and joining in their song ! 

** Some friends that started with me. 

Have entered long ago j 
One by one they left me, struggling with the foe. 

Their pilgrimage was shorter, 

Their triumphs sooner won : 
How lovingly they'll hail me, when all my toils are done ! 

" With them the blessed angels 

That know not grief, nor sin ; 
I 5aw them by the portals prepared to let me In. 

Oh ! Lord, I wait Thy pleasure, 

Thy time and way are best, 
But I'm tired, worn, and weary, oh ! Father, bid me rest !" 

There is a kind of weariness, a home-sick- 
ness, which an aged Christian often feels. It 
is well described as "The solitude of Christ." 



VIE WS OF HE A VEN. 4 1 

'^ The bodily sensation which no well friend 
can understand ; the inexpressible mental weari- 
ness which a healthy brain cannot conceive of; 
the absolute forgetfulness of what a healthy 
sensation is, which makes it impossible for a 
sick person to enter into the spring-tide of life 
around him ; the suppression of speech about 
his own condition, through fear of being a dis- 
comfort to his friends ; the struggle to be silent, 
when speech, if indulged, would be irritable ; 
the nights of watching, when he can hear the 
breathing of the world asleep, and when he 
seems to have more companionship with crea- 
tures of the darkness than with his own kind ; 
and, above all, the forced withdrawal from the 
toils of past years, with the closing up of the 
little space which he occupies in the world's 
thoughts, and the drooping of his friendships, 
because of his inability to cultivate them ; in 
short, that consciousness (premonitory of the 



42 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

grave) that the world is sweeping by him and 
over him, — all these peculiarities of an invalid's 
life force him back perhaps from all human 
ties. They tend to create a sense of isolation 
from which no relief is practicable, if it does 
not help him to come into sympathy with 
Christ's solitude, and so help him to know 
Christ's sympathy with him. When disease 
plainly crowds a Christian into moral loneli- 
ness, he cannot be mistaken in using it as one 
of God's expedients for schooling him. You 
cannot go wrong if, practically, your soul comes 
nearer to Christ. We do not know that it 
matters much whether we get to Heaven by 
the easiest way or not. It is not safe for us to 
choose the way. What is death — the process, 
I mean — but the finale of this withdraw^ing 
from human sympathies and helps ? We die 
alone. The soul, before it quits the body, 
generally recedes for a while from sense of 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 43 

earthly things. Friends know little or nothing 
of its thoughts. It is like the still voice of 
nature calling the soul back into solitude with 
God. These moments may be full of "God's 
silence," in which He draws the departing 
spirit lovingly into consciousness of His own 
presence." 

Any invalid like you and I can enter fully 
into the truth of these lines. I think with 
Harbaugh, that " there is too much of a ten- 
dency toward making Heaven a mere subject 
of feeling in the soul, without regarding it also 
as an object of hope toward which we are 
directed to look for full and final satisfaction. 
That region of rest and peace into which this 
life, if it is a life " hid with Christ in God," is 
at length to merge, is too much ignored : just 
as if earth could be bright without light from 
above. We need more of that old faith which 
boasted less of spiritualism than we hear of now. 



44 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

but felt a nearer fellowship with the world of 
spirits, was more really under the influence of 
spiritual powers, — that faith which was faith 
only because it was the evidence of things not 
seen. Vague and floating ideas of Heaven 
weaken faith and render unsteady our religious 
life. We must lay definite and firm hold upon 
the hope set before us, which entereth into that 
within the veil. Heaven is described in this 
day as such a sublimated and ethereal state, so 
abstracted and removed from all the sympathies 
of the present life, that to many it seems pro- 
fane to claim a present fellowship with it. 
Practically we are taught the heavenly life is 
so unlike this, to be entered by such a violent 
transition, that, publican-like, we ought to stand 
afar off, hardly turning our eyes towards it. 
Instead of cold abstractions, we need a reviving 
of those father-land feelings which will enable 
us to approach our heavenly inheritance like 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 45 

children long absent going home. To be in 
Heaven is to sit down at table with patriarchs 
and saints — to come to the general assembly 
and church of the first-born — to walk forth in 
company with the *•' Lamb that was slain" — 
to repose as children upon "our Father's" 
bosom, and have by His hand all tears wiped 
from our eyes. Can we be children and not 
think of our Father's house ? Heirs and not 
long for our inheritance ? May we not safely 
measure our interest in that blissful place by 
the strength of our desire after it ? In the case 
of the saints, when they grow weary and bur- 
dens press sorely, God shows them the " first 
fruits from Canaan," and says, " Behold the 
earnest of your inheritance, eat and live." 
There is indeed a heavenly foretaste, more full, 
satisfying, and intensely delightful, the nearer 
we approach the close of life. I think, beyond 
a doubt, the soul in its last moments of stay 



46 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

upon earth, is so far free from its inward affini- 
ties with the body as to see already the glorious 
realities of that world which it is just entering. 
Angels are to gather the harvest. " Are they 
not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister 
for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?" and 
at the moment dearest earthly friends must re- 
tire, we may assume that they offer their sym- 
pathies and offices of love, and the dying Chris- 
tian may perceive as within a curtain the forms, 
outlines, and features they cannot discern 
wholly. There will be degrees of happiness 
in Heaven, no doubt, for we will be rewarded 
according to our works. The saint who has 
been less useful will be happy ; but his happi- 
ness, though also eternal and to him full, must 
be less wide and intense. Paul, counted worthy 
to suffer so much for Christ, will be happier 
than one " saved as by fire." It is the different 
degrees of grace which measure the different 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 47 

degrees of glory, i Cor. xv. 4 c, 42, confirms 
this truth. Therefore, my dear old friend, let 
us run with zeal and patience the race set be- 
fore us, 'Mooking unto Jesus" and the bright 
cloud of witnesses, and reaching for a high 
prize set before us. 

With Faith our guide, 
White-robed and innocent to tread the way, 
Why fear to plunge in Jordan's rolling tide 
And find the haven of eternal day ? 

The sinless body of our first parent, which 
at its creation was " very good," became 
weak, corrupted, and degraded by sin ; but it 
is again to be made powerful, incorruptible, and 
glorious by redemption. As the seed sown 
perishes below to appear above, so our change 
is from the imperfect and earthly to the perfect 
and heavenly. Our transformation is at the 
same time a glorification. ^'They which shall 
be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and 



48 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

the resurrection from the dead/' die no more: 
''for they are equal unto the angels; and 
are the children of God, being the children of 
the resurrection." Jesus '' shall change our 
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto 
his glorious body." Already in life here, the 
spirit, dwelling in the saints, banishes more and 
more of the life of nature. In Heaven the 
victory will be complete. There the Holy 
Spirit, who dwells in the bodies of the saints as 
a quickening power, will so permeate the mat- 
ter of the new body as to quicken it with His 
own life and render it radiant with His own 
glory. Rom. viii. 10, ii. And I believe the 
worship of Heaven is the same in kind, only 
higher in degree, as that on earth. We read 
(Rev. V. 9) that the saints above do call to 
mind the Lamb slain, and the blood that was 
shed in their redemption. Therefore may not 
the blessed eucharistic communion of the Lord, 



VIEWS OF HEAVEN 49 

in some sense and in some form, continue in 
heaven ? Matt. xxvi. 29 pointed forward to 
some scene of holy joy from which they might 
point back to that sacramental feast, and recog- 
nize the unity of the cup on earth with the cup 
above. I cannot believe there is pure subli- 
mated spiritualism even in Heaven, for it makes 
heavenly communion a mere imagination ; it 
ignores the idea of a real kingdom and church, 
with a visible head and visible members, and it 
seems incompatible with the incarnation of 
Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the body. 
If they are figures, I feel disposed to seek 
something behind such expressions as, " I will 
not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, 
until that day when I drink it new with you in 
my Father's kingdom ;" '^ will I give to eat of 
the hidden manna," " the tree of hfe," *•' the 
water of life," being called to the marriage 
supper of the Lamb, and sitting ^' down with 

4 



50 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom 
of God." 

And now, my friend, if "gathering up these 
fragments," — condensing the views of many 
authors (to which perhaps you may not have 
access), has given you any comfort — has created 
in you a more intense longing for our heavenly 
home and fitness for it, it has done all I wish. 
We are rapidly nearing its gates. Think of 
those that await us there. We have children 
in Heaven — they left us as infants. Infants 
were the first Christian martyrs. Did not those 
of Bethlehem die for Christ's sake ? Afterwards 
He died for them. " To and for infants He 
became an infant, sanctifying infants." There 
is no family undivided : part on earth, part in 
Heaven. I do not agree with Bickersteth, that 
"a babe in glory is a babe for ever." Surely 
they must advance in knowledge, and our babies 
may be our teachers to instruct and lead us to 



VIE]VS OF HEAVEN. 5 1 

the feet of Jesus. Longfellow's views are far 
more soothing and ennobling to my mind. 

'' Day after day, we think what she is doing 
In those bright realms of air; 
Year after year, her tender steps pursuing. 
Behold her grown more fair. 

'^ Not as a child shall we again behold her; 
For when with rapture wild, 
In our embraces we again enfold her. 
She will not be a child ; — 

But a fair maiden, in her Father's mansion, 

Clothed with celestial grace ; 
And beautiful with all the soul's expansion 

Shall we behold her face. 

" 'Tis a work 
Of many a dark hour, and of many a prayer. 
To bring the heart back from an infant gone !'* 

But now we can say, thanks be to God ! 
^^They are safe with Jesus: Hallelujah!" 
^^ We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship 



52 VIEWS OF HEAVEN. 

Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to 
Thee for Thy great glory, O Lord God, 
heavenly King, God the Father Almighty !" 
" For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the 
Lord ; Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy 
Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the 
Father." 






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